The present invention relates to the field of bowling lane maintenance equipment, and more particularly, to machines that apply lane dressing, such as conditioning oil, to lane surfaces as the machines travel up and down the lanes between the foul line and pin deck area.
Machines that apply conditioning oil to bowling lanes typically use a rotating bristle brush-type roller to engage the lane surface and transfer oil thereto from the machine as it travels lengthwise along the lane. Such bristle rollers are usually referred to as applicator rollers and have oil applied thereto by a hard metal transfer roller. The transfer roller, in turn, may receive its oil from one or more digitally controlled dispensing heads that move along the length of the transfer roller and dispense a stream of oil onto its rotating surface. The oil is applied to the transfer roller in preselected amounts that vary along the length of the roller so that, ultimately, the pattern of oil applied to the lane by the applicator roller corresponds to a preselected pattern. Examples of machines that utilize the digitally controlled dispensing head technology are disclosed in U.S. Letters Pat. No. 4,980,815 and 5,729,855, both assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Due to the moving nature of the dispensing head, the oil deposited on the transfer roller in any particular zone along its length tends to be fairly concentrated in one circumferential location rather than distributed evenly around the entire circumference in that zone. It is believed that this circumstance sometimes causes the oil in any particular zone to be applied unevenly to the lane as the machine is moving along its length. This results in less than optimum playing conditions, including erratic and unpredictable behavior of the bowling ball as it travels through uneven levels of oil along the lane.
The present invention overcomes this problem through the provision of a smoothing assembly that evens out the concentration of oil in a particular zone around the entire circumference of the transfer roller so that, within that particular zone, the applicator roller carries a generally uniform volume of oil around its entire circumference. Although the oil stream tends to be applied to the transfer roller in a rather localized manner, the smoothing assembly has the effect of extending the deposited oil on around the entire circumference of the transfer roller in a even layer, ultimately resulting in a more even application of oil to the lane surface by the applicator roller.
In its preferred form, the smoothing assembly comprises a series of independent, spring-loaded pad units along the length of the transfer roller that lightly engage corresponding sections of the transfer roller to physically wipe and spread the oil about the circumference of the roller as it is rotating relative to the pad units. Preferably, the pad units are disposed to engage the newly deposited oil immediately after it arrives on the transfer roller and before it reaches the applicator roller. Furthermore, each pad unit preferably has a contacting face comprised of fabric having a raised nap, preferably in the nature of a multiplicity of fibrous loops.